Step 2
Step 2: Composing the Harmony for Our Song
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Key Definitions:
Harmony: The combination of two or more notes played simultaneously and sound consonant (good sounding) together.
Chords: Generally, three notes played at the same time. Chords are part of the harmonic structure of a song.
1. Remember we are writing our blues song in the key of A minor, which uses the notes
A B C D E F G
2. Our goal now is to build chords for our blues songs. Chords are generally a combination of 3 notes played at the same time. In a rock band like the Beatles, the rhythm guitar player plays the chords and the bass player outlines the most important notes of a chord. The lead guitar is responsible for the melody. In jazz, the pianist's left hand is assigned the function of playing the chords.
Keep in mind one important rule throughout most forms of western music--the melody should always be consonant (sounds good) with the chords. In the key of A minor, if we introduced a chord that had a C# in it, it would sound dissonant with the melody.
3. Let us take our A minor scale and number the sequence of the notes:
I II III IV V VI VII ( I') (II)
A B C D E F G (A') (B')
Now it gets a little tricky. What makes a blues a blues is the chords that we select for the harmony. Traditionally, the blues are defined by 3 chords--the I - IV - V. So if we choose to compose a traditional blues song, we would have to use these three chords. We could use others if we wanted to get fancy and go outside the traditional form. However, those three chords generally stand for what the traditional blues is.
4. To make the I-chord, what notes do we choose. There has to be 3 of them. It is simple, using basic math. We already numbered the sequence of notes in the A minor scale. So we can see that our I-chord will begin with the note A. Our IV-chord will begin with the note D, and our V-chord will begin with note E.
For the I-chord we already have the note A. Now look at the sequence above. What note is two spaces to the right of A? It is the C. So we will add the C to our I-chord. Why? Because whenever you skip over one note in music, such as the B, the next note will sound good. It just works that way.
Now move two spaces to the right of C and add the E. Now we have our three notes. Do the same for IV and V-chords.
I-Chord or A Chord = A C E
IV-Chord or D Chord = D F A' (note the A' or the A in the next octave higher, would be the next note on the keyboard after G)
V-Chord or E Chord = E G B (note that the B' would be two spaces to the right of the G an octave higher than the first B on the keyboard)
5. Now you have the fundamentals for understanding the harmony of a traditional blues. You should now be able to follow along in the following demonstration. Just watch about the first 2 minutes. The guitarist will demonstrate how those chords sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W5VzJKF6Y8
Links to an external site.
5. Putting the chords to the 12-bar form.
Replay the above video beginning at 1:13 into the song and follow along the chart below, which is the chart for "Fine and Mellow," also in the 12-bar form. Note which measures or bars the I-IV-V chords occur within the 12-bar form. Hear and watch as the guitarist changes chords accordingly. Do not worry about the lyrics for now. You are correct if you noticed that the form for "Fine and Mellow" is the same as in the video above; hence, it is a form that is traditional and is like a plug-and-play feature in music. You will notice only one difference. It occurs in measure 10. The guitarist above plays a IV-chord in that measure; whereas in the Billie Holiday song below, it is missing. In other words, the musicians stay on the V chord. In older recordings of blues, musicians often stayed on the V chord in measure 10. In modern performances, musicians add the IV chord. I think it sounds better with the IV chord in measure 10.
If you have gotten this far and have gotten the idea, pat yourself on the back. You now have a good understanding of how the parts of music, including the melody, harmony (chords), and rhythm all come together in a song! Did you notice how mathematical music can be?